Demi-belt for nether garments



Sept. 26, 1961 H. HARRISON DEMI-BELT FOR NETHER GARMENTS Filed Sept. 28, 1959 BY (5 I m rates atent Filed Sept. 28, 1959, Ser. No. 842,930 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-309) The invention relates in general to wearing apparel and has particular reference to means for supporting nether garments, such as trousers, slacks, shorts and skirts, at the waist line of the wearer.

'Prior to my present invention, the supporting means for. nether garments customarily employed have been either suspenders that hang from the shoulders or belts that completely engirdle the waist of the wearer. Supporting means of these kinds are unsightly, bulky and expensive, and can only be applied to a nether garment with care and considerable time consumption.

It, therefore, is the primary object of the present invention to provide an improved supporting device that may be applied detachably and speedily to the waistline edge portion of a nether garment in back of the wearer where it is concealed from view when a coat or jacket is worn and is desirably inconspicuous at other times.

Another object is to provide a supporting device of the proposed general character which is extremely simple in construction, which may be produced at low cost, and which may be applied to the nether garment and fitted to waist measure by the wearer easily and quickly.

A further object is to provide a device of this class that does not require the addition of belt loops, buttons, or other attachments on the nether garment at its waistline, such as is necessary when using conventional belts or suspenders.

Still further objects, advantagesand features of the invention will become apparent as the following specific description is read inconnection' with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a rear elevational view of the waist portion of a nether garment, partly broken away, showing a demibelt constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention applied thereto;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal cross-section on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section on line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 1, showing one of the anchoring means of the demi-belt having a modified form of loop-forming member; and

FIG. 5 is a horizontal section on line 55 of FIG. 4.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views, FIGS. 1 to 3, inclusive, illustrate the preferred embodiment of my improved supporting device while being worn at the back of a nether garment, such as a pair of trousers, to support the same. It will be observed that the exposed surfaces of the garment at the waistline are plain and neatly form-fitting in the absence of unsightly protuberances such as belt loops and suspender buttons, all of which are not required any longer and therefore are omitted. Moreover, because the demibelt is located in back of the wearer, it will not be visible in front.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the supporting device in its entirety includes only three principal parts, viz: a cooperative pair of anchoring means -40, and a flexible connecting band 11, which preferably is made of elastic webbing. The anchoring means 1010 are intended to be directly engaged with the waistband of the wearers nether garment G. The comparatively short connecting band 11 is terminally connected to anchoring means 10-10 and is provided with means to be described more fully later by which its effective length may be adjusted to regulate the degree of tightness with which the waistband of garment G fits the wearer and thereby insure proper support.

Each anchoring means 10 preferably is a spring clip of inverted U-shape that is intended to embrace the waistband of garment G in the manner shown, and is made from a strip of flat, inherently resilient sheet material, such as metal or plastic, that is doubled upon itself longitudinally to form inner and outer waistband-gripping jaws 12 and 13, respectively, which primarily depend uponfrictional pressure for their grip upon the garment G. For convenience in applying each anchoring means 1% to the garment waistband, the respective lower ends of inner and outer jaws 12 and 13 are bent into slight divergence to provide a garment-receiving mouth 14.

In a sense, the two cooperative anchoring means 10 are right-handed and left-handed because they are at the right and left side of the rear-center seam S of garment G and are provided with loop-forming members 15, which are differently pivoted so that their distal ends face rearwardly toward each other girthwise for threaded connection to the corresponding ends of connecting band 11.

In the presently preferred embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the loop-forming member 15 of each anchoring means 10 is formed integral with said means by punching process. A substantially U-shaped slit is punched out of the part of a sheet material blank that is to produce the outer jaw 13 of the anchoring means 10. This slit is arranged so that the loop-forming member 15 is connected to the body of the outer jaw by a vertically extensive hinge portion 16 and the distal end of said member faces inwardly toward the cooperative anchoring means 10. The said distal end of loop-forming member '15 has a vertical slot 17 to provide a loop through-which flexible connecting band 11 is threaded. Loop-forming member 15 is bent outward from integral outer-jaw 13 into a normally inclined position and the adjoining end portion of connecting band 11 overlies the jaw. One end of connecting band 11 is looped around the distal end of loop-forming member 15 and then stitched as at 18 to form a permanent connection. The opposite end of connecting band 11, on the other hand, is threaded through loop-slot 17 and doubled upon itself to a considerable extent. A suitable clasp fastener 19 positioned at the free end of connecting band 11 is engaged in conventional manner with the intermediate portion of said band in order that the effective length of the latter may be adjusted to determine the normal spacing of anchoring means 10.

In order to supplement the frictional gripping action of jaws 12 and 13 of each anchoring means, I have provided more positive gripping means in the form of teeth 20 which are carried by the loop-forming member 15 and project inwardly therefrom into the space between jaws 12 and 13 when tightening of connecting member 11 presses loop-forming member 15 inwardly. Teeth 29 are shown as vertical corrugations which rake toward the distal end of the loop-forming member 15 to resist strongly any separation of the cooperative pair of anchoring means 10-10. Under circumstances of use in which the tension of connecting band 11 is released, the free distal end of loop-forming member 15 will spring outward from the aperture in outer jaw 13 formed within the margins of the U-shaped slit and thereby relieve the engagement of teeth 20 with the embraced waistline portion of garment G. With positive gripping action thus relieved, the anchoring means 10 may be moved in any direction in the plane of garment G subject only to the resistance of resilient frictional gripping action of the jaws 12 and 13 alone.

In the drawing, teeth 20 are shown as being formed on a plate 21 that is secured to the inner face of the loopforming member 15 of each anchoring means by brazing or any other suitable process. An alternative manner of production would be to stamp teeth 20 from loop-forming member. itself (not shown).

In FIGS. 4 and 5, a modification is disclosed wherein the outer jaw 13 of each anchoring means 10 is provided with a substantially central aperture 22 of preferably rectangular shape and a separate loop-forming member 15 having a loop-slot 17' at its distal end has its opposite end hinged to said member 15' by hinge means 23 of suitable construction.

In the operative use of my improved demi-belt device, the said device is placed against the wearers back at the waistline with both hands holding the respective righthand and left-hand anchoring means 1010. Then, the mouths 14 of the said anchoring means 1010 are pushed downwardly into embracing engagement with the Waistline portion of garment G into the positions represented in FIG. 1. After the device has been applied in this way to garment G, the tightness of fit of the waistline portion of the latter to the wearers body may be regulated by grasping the anchoring means 10 and pulling them forwardly away from each other until the front portion of garment G presses against the wearers body with sufficient firmness to insure proper support. Because connecting band 11 is made of elastic material, it will yield comfortably to changes in girth measurement due to body bending or other causes.

Initial adjustment of the spacing between anchoring means 111-111 to locate them inconspicuously behind the wearers back may be efiected by varying the length of connecting band 11 by means of clasp fastener 19. Due to the tight grip of the teeth of the loop-forming member 15 of each anchoring means 10 upon garment G, it may be necessary to release clasp fastener 19 and lengthen connecting band 11 prior to removal of the demi-belt device from a nether garment while being worn. After the garment has been taken off, loosening of connecting band 11 will not be necessary.

While the invention has been illustrated and described with respect to only two embodiments thereof, it will be understood that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the embodiments shown which do not constitute departures from the spirit of the invention and scope of the claim.

I claim:

A demi-belt for nether garments comprising: a pair of cooperative anchoring clips of substantially inverted U-shape having opposed inner and outer jaws adapted to embrace and be supported by the waist portion of a nether garment at selected girthwise spaced positions, the outer jaw of each anchoring clip having a part cut away to provide a large aperture, and a flat loop-forming member pivotally mounted on each outer jaw to swing inwardly toward and outwardly away from the aperture thereof on an axis arranged at the opposite side of the aperture with respect to the cooperative anchoring clip, said loopforming member having a loop at the side opposite to the pivotal axis; a connecting band extending girthwise between said anchoring clips to determine the degree of spacing thereof and having end loops threaded through the respective loops of the said anchoring clips and arranged in a manner to overlie the outer jaws of said clips, whereby tightening of the connecting band will press each loop-forming member inwardly toward the aperture in the outer jaw of the corresponding anchoring clip; and teeth-like gripping means carried by the loopforming member of each anchoring clip and projecting inwardly therefrom for penetration of the aperture in the corresponding outer jaw into positive gripping engagement with the clip-embraced waist portion of a nether garment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,081,501 Hirsh Dec. 16, 1913 1,603,915 Hultz Oct. 19, 1926 1,928,137 Rowland Sept. 26, 1933 2,137,563 Caraway Nov. 22, 1938 2,911,653 ODonnell Nov. 10, 1959 

